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Thomas Kelly: Healing Our Lands & Communities

Three-quarters of a century ago, a thoughtful Quaker named Thomas Kelly deftly pegged the dilemma, that you, me, and many other people are challenged by: “We feel honestly the pull of many obligations, and try to fulfill them all.”

But then, Kelly turned his attention from the problem to the resolution, “We have hints that there is a way of life, vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power. If we could only slip over into that Center! …Some people seem to have found this deep center of living, where the fretful calls of life are integrated, where no as well as yes can be said with confidence.”

That, my friends, is the deep (and sacred) roots of the Radical Center, a non-dualistic way of living in the world where us vs. them, contemplative practice vs. action for social justice, nature vs. people dichotomies fade or look frivolous.

We would all do well to take a vacation there for the holidays, if we can’t imagine how to live there full-time! IT’S WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS NOW.